A citywide ban on public smoking in Colorado led to significant decreases in maternal smoking and preterm births, providing the first evidence in the U.S. that such interventions can impact maternal and fetal health, according to an article in Journal of Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women’s Health website.

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke - whether the mother is a smoker or exposure is from environmental sources -  is associated with premature births and low birth weight. The results of a “natural experiment” that compared outcomes in two cities, one with a smoking ban and one without a ban, showed reductions in both maternal smoking and premature births in the city with a smoking ban.

In the article “A Citywide Smoking Ban Reduced Maternal Smoking and Risk for Preterm, Not Low Birth Weight, Births: A Colorado Natural Experiment,” Robert Lee Page II, PharmD, MSPH, Julia Slejko, BA, and Anne Libby, PhD, University of Colorado, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, concluded that a population-level intervention using a smoking ban improved maternal and fetal outcomes.

“Exposure to tobacco smoke is associated with not only death from lung cancer and heart disease but also risks to developing fetuses,” says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women’s Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women’s Health. “The promising results of this study suggest that pregnant women and their fetuses represent an important population for further study of health and cost effects of smoke-free ordinances.”

About the Journal
Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women’s Health.

About the Society
Academy of Women’s Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women’s health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy’s focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for women across the lifespan.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Breastfeeding Medicine, Population Health Management, Thyroid, and Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website

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